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Gospel musicFri, 28 Dec 2018 22:29:05 +0000enhourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8http://gospeltrainlive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/cropped-GOSPEL-TRAIN-LOGO-1-32x32.pngGospeltrainlivehttp://gospeltrainlive.com
3232Prodigal Sonhttp://gospeltrainlive.com/news/prodigal-son/
http://gospeltrainlive.com/news/prodigal-son/#respondTue, 13 Nov 2018 17:27:39 +0000http://gospeltrainlive.com/?p=13860Originally from St.Catherine, Calvin Curtis Whilby, also known as “Prodigal Son” began his early adult life on the mean streets of Kingston, but soon realized that this was not for him and that the Lord had a plan for his life.

He began producing reggae gospel music to give praise to God and in 2001 he released his debut album Radikal Prodigal followed by several more albums over the following years such as C.E.O. Christ’s Executive Officer, My Block, and Halfway There. He has also been the recipient of several notable awards as a gospel performer.

]]>http://gospeltrainlive.com/news/prodigal-son/feed/0Carlene Davishttp://gospeltrainlive.com/news/carlene-davis/
http://gospeltrainlive.com/news/carlene-davis/#respondTue, 13 Nov 2018 17:25:50 +0000http://gospeltrainlive.com/?p=13857Active as a mainstream reggae artist since the 1970’s, Carlene Davis who hails from the parish of Clarendon, became a full-time gospel singer in the mid 1990’s after her diagnosis with breast cancer when she recommitted her life to God.

Her work includes the albums Alive for Jesus 2002and Author and Finisher 2003. She continues to record and produce gospel music with her husband Tommy Cowan.

]]>http://gospeltrainlive.com/news/carlene-davis/feed/0Monica Lewinsky; I would apologize to Hillary Clinton againhttp://gospeltrainlive.com/news/monica-lewinsky-i-would-apologize-to-hillary-clinton-again/
http://gospeltrainlive.com/news/monica-lewinsky-i-would-apologize-to-hillary-clinton-again/#respondTue, 13 Nov 2018 17:18:02 +0000http://gospeltrainlive.com/?p=13854Monica Lewinsky says she would again apologize to former first lady Hillary Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, over the 1998 sex scandal that embroiled the White House and led to former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment.

Lewinsky, who has become an activist for women’s rights and part of the #MeToo movement, wrote in a personal essay that 20 years later, amid the public reckoning over sexual harassment and gender-based power dynamics facing the United States, that she has chosen to again discuss her relationship with Bill Clinton while he was married.

Lewinsky says she participated in a 20-hour interview for an upcoming documentary titled “The Clinton Affair,” in which she and others unpack the turmoil that seized the nation’s attention and resulted in a special counsel investigation. The former president has come under fire this year for saying that he did not owe Lewinsky a public apology even in the era of #MeToo, the movement that aims to destigmatize the public sharing of sexual misconduct stories in the hopes of holding the perpetrators accountable.

“My first public words after the scandal … were an apology directly to Chelsea and Mrs. Clinton. And if I were to see Hillary Clinton in person today, I know that I would summon up whatever force I needed to again acknowledge to her—sincerely—how very sorry I am,” Lewinsky wrote in the article published in Vanity Fair, where she is a contributing editor.

Still, she criticized Bill Clinton for appearing dismissive of the idea that he might owe her a public apology.

“For the first time in more than 15 years, Bill Clinton was being asked directly about what transpired. If you want to know what power looks like, watch a man safely, even smugly, do interviews for decades, without ever worrying whether he will be asked the questions he doesn’t want to answer,” she wrote.

]]>http://gospeltrainlive.com/news/monica-lewinsky-i-would-apologize-to-hillary-clinton-again/feed/0Pastor Orders Female Members To Remove Underwear So God Can Enter Their Bodieshttp://gospeltrainlive.com/news/pastor-orders-female-members-to-remove-underwear-so-god-can-enter-their-bodies/
http://gospeltrainlive.com/news/pastor-orders-female-members-to-remove-underwear-so-god-can-enter-their-bodies/#respondFri, 09 Sep 2016 16:01:40 +0000http://gospeltrainlive.com/?p=5028Kenyan pastor Rev. Njohi has raised not only a few eyebrows but red flags with his unorthodox suggestion of having his female congregants remove their bras and underwear before coming to church, so that Christ can freely enter their bodies with his spirit, according to The Kenyan Daily Post.
Njohi, who is the pastor of the Lord’s Propeller Redemption Church in Kenya, reportedly refers to undergarments as “ungodly.” The bible-toting minister called together a meeting with church officials and allegedly discussed banning the under garments because people “need to be free in body and spirit in order to receive Christ.”
After warning his female congregants about the evils of skivvies, the God-fearing pastor spoke of the damnation they will suffer if they dare not to go bare underneath.
In true fashion, the church’s female population reportedly did come to church sans their undies, the Post reports, in order to prepare for their spiritual taking.
This SICK Pastor probably wanted to lay hands on these unsuspecting women folk!
]]>http://gospeltrainlive.com/news/pastor-orders-female-members-to-remove-underwear-so-god-can-enter-their-bodies/feed/0JetBlue Mixed Up Two 5-Year-Olds And Sent Them To The Wrong Citieshttp://gospeltrainlive.com/news/jetblue-mixed-up-two-5-year-olds-and-sent-them-to-the-wrong-cities/
http://gospeltrainlive.com/news/jetblue-mixed-up-two-5-year-olds-and-sent-them-to-the-wrong-cities/#respondFri, 09 Sep 2016 15:56:12 +0000http://gospeltrainlive.com/?p=5025JetBlue mixed up two 5-year-olds and sent them to the wrong cities on August 17, leaving one panic-stricken mother waiting three hours while the airline located her son.
Andy Martinez Mercado, 5, was traveling alone from a family visit in the Dominican Republic to his home in New York after his mother had returned from the trip about two weeks prior. Instead, he wound up in Boston, over 200 miles away, his mother, Maribel Martinez, told the New York Daily News.
“I thought he was kidnapped,” she said. “I thought I would never see him again.”
JetBlue employees brought Martinez a different 5-year-old boy, who they thought was her son — and she said he was carrying her son’s passport.
“No, this is not my child,” Martinez said she told the employees. The boy was supposed to be on a flight to Boston, but was put on the flight to New York by mistake.
Three hours later, JetBlue figured out that Andy was in Boston and placed him on the next flight to New York.
“I was freaking out. I didn’t know if he was alive,” she said. “I still haven’t stopped crying.”

JetBlue confirmed the incident to BuzzFeed News in a statement, and said they “immediately took steps to assist the children in reaching their correct destinations” once they learned of the mistake.
They have refunded the flights, offered the families JetBlue credit for future flights, and are reviewing the incident to prevent similar ones in the future.
“While the children were always under the care and supervision of JetBlue crew members, we realize this situation was distressing for their families,” they said.
According to JetBlue’s website, “photo identification is required for both parties who drop off and pick up an unaccompanied minor” and “unaccompanied minors will not be accepted without the guardian’s photo ID.”
They also require a parent or guardian’s phone number and address to be included with the minor’s reservation.
Martinez said she will never use JetBlue again, and is now considering legal action against the airline for negligence.
“Any parent can understand the terrifying fear a mother goes through knowing that her child is missing,” Martinez’s lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, told the Daily News.
“This never should have happened and the JetBlue employees should be ashamed of themselves.”

]]>http://gospeltrainlive.com/news/jetblue-mixed-up-two-5-year-olds-and-sent-them-to-the-wrong-cities/feed/0Jamaica Turns to Cannabis in Hopes of Getting A Tourism Highhttp://gospeltrainlive.com/news/jamaica-turns-to-cannabis-in-hopes-of-getting-a-tourism-high/
http://gospeltrainlive.com/news/jamaica-turns-to-cannabis-in-hopes-of-getting-a-tourism-high/#respondFri, 09 Sep 2016 15:49:25 +0000http://gospeltrainlive.com/?p=5022MINISTER OF TOURISM EDMUND BARTLETT (RIGHT) MEETS WITH EDI WRAY, FIRST MAN AND HEAD OF THE RASTAFARI INDIGENOUS VILLAGE AT IRWIN IN MONTEGO BAY, AFTER ADDRESSING CANEX JAMAICA, THE ISLAND’S FIRST CANNABIS-CENTRED CONFERENCE ON THE BUSINESS POTENTIAL OF THE MARIJUANA TRADE. LISTENING ATTENTIVELY IS MITZIE WILLIAMS.
Jamaica is trying to cash in on the multi-billion-dollar health and wellness tourism sector that several Caribbean countries are turning to in order to boost visitor numbers, but it won’t be traditional medicine it plans to use to reach a high in tourist arrivals.
Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said Jamaica’s lush and rustic southwestern coast is ideally suited for the concept of “cannabis-infused tourism” where products made from the herb would play a major part in the tourism sector.
Health and wellness tourism has been identified as one of the key areas of focus under the ministry’s plan to grow visitor arrivals to five million annually, generating earnings of US$5 billion by 2021.
Speaking at Canex Jamaica, the first cannabis-centred conference on the business potential of the marijuana trade, Minister Bartlett said he recognized “how the cannabis product and its application could fit neatly in a network of health and wellness that could drive a new demographic into Jamaica with a higher spend and which will be able to establish us as a destination with a difference.”

The Tourism Minister said Jamaica should not be a destination with only all-inclusive properties and mass tourism: “We believe that we can do product differentiation and we can do a level of product diversification which enables us to be attractive to all demographics.”
An element of that, Bartlett added, was “rustic luxury” which combined nature with the benefit of a luxurious lifestyle, while enabling the utilization of “the nutraceutical values of the rich biodiversity of your neighbourhood.”
He said the global market for that kind of tourism stands at around US$494 billion and Jamaica wants a piece of it.
“What we’ve found also is that cannabis-infused experiences have added much to health and wellness across the United States,” the Minister added, citing the US state of Colorado where bookings increased by over 175 per cent when it entered that market, and Amsterdam which has also benefitted tremendously.
He said the Health and Wellness Network that he has established in the Tourism Ministry had been tasked with defining the policy that will provide the framework within which the cannabis-infused health and wellness experience will become a reality in Jamaica.
“And we’re going to have a full roll-out of that by the end of 2017,” Bartlett disclosed.
In an invitation to marijuana growers and prospective investors at the conference, the minister urged them to examine “how you can work with me to drive this new experience and to invest in the prosperity agenda that the country has.”

Police said the 22-year-old victim, who was nearly 9 months pregnant, was stabbed and killed by a childhood friend. The baby cut from her womb is alive.

Ashleigh Wade told the world she was expecting a baby girl.

The would-be father was so excited that he posted a sonogram picture on his profile, along with links to baby registries in Wade’s name, that listed a due date of Nov. 16.

Wade’s landlord said there was no doubt that her tenant was expecting. However, it was, according to police sources, an elaborate ruse. Wade, they say, was never pregnant — 22-year-old Angelikque Sutton was.

“She told me, I saw her – I knew she was pregnant,” said the landlord.

On Friday afternoon, Sutton, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant, visited Wade at her Wakefield apartment, where police say Wade stabbed Sutton to death, and then cut her baby out of her stomach

Police and paramedics encountered a blood-soaked horror show, and rushed Sutton to the hospital. The baby survived, but police could do nothing for Sutton.

Wade reportedly insisted to police that the baby was hers, and that she had given birth after stabbing Sutton in self-defense, but after the bloodbath police figured out what they said was the real story.

On Saturday, Sutton’s friends and family were left reeling by the sheer depravity of this grisly crime that left the young mother dead.

“Why would anyone do this? That’s all I can say. How could they do this?” said Davon Warren.

Davon Warren grew up across the street from Sutton, and could not summon the words to describe the pain and the knowledge of the baby girl who will never know her mom.

“Hopefully her sisters will tell her the good things about her – just remember all the good times and stuff,” said Warren.

The landlord who lives in the house told Eyewitness News that she was so convinced that Wade actually was pregnant that she had already bought her a card, and was on her way to go buy her a baby gift.

Wade is now charged with second degree murder and manslaughter. She is currently in the psych ward at Elmhurst Hospital.

]]>http://gospeltrainlive.com/news/bronx-woman-charged-with-stabbing-pregnant-friend-cutting-baby-out-of-womb-2/feed/0A way has to be found to stimulate investment — Bruce Goldinghttp://gospeltrainlive.com/news/a-way-has-to-be-found-to-stimulate-investment-bruce-golding/
http://gospeltrainlive.com/news/a-way-has-to-be-found-to-stimulate-investment-bruce-golding/#respondSun, 25 Oct 2015 21:42:17 +0000http://gospeltrainlive.com/?p=351SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — The comment by former Prime Minister Bruce Golding hit the funny bone, but for those at a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) fund-raiser in Black River early this month it also summed up the vagaries of the Jamaican economy.

“Sometimes when I look at the Jamaican economy you get a sense that no matter how much black pepper you put up its nose it won’t sneeze,” said Golding, who resigned as prime minister and leader of the JLP in late 2011.

He was providing a critique of the People’s National Party Government’s economic programme dictated by multilateral lender, International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the function hosted in Black River by Floyd Green, the JLP’s candidate for St Elizabeth South Western.

The former prime minister emphasised that the IMF programme was necessary, and that there were measures being implemented which could not be avoided.

However, for Golding, a matter of great concern was what he termed the “internally contradictory” nature of a programme which insisted on economic growth even while “squeezing the life” out of the economy.

To meet targets, Golding said, the Government had been forced to increase taxes, though Jamaicans were already at their taxable limit, which itself was a disincentive for production.

“The programme essentially is squeezing the economy in order to meet the primary surplus target… In order to get the revenues you need, you squeeze the life out of the economy. Then, if you squeezing the life out of the economy, where is the growth to come from in order for you to achieve targets?” said Golding.

Arguing that the Portia Simpson Miller-led Government had been “hoodwinked”, Golding criticised what he suggested was flawed economic theory promoted by the multilaterals.

“The multilaterals, the IMF, the World Bank, and to a lesser extent the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) … have this notion, almost like theology to them, that if you get your fiscal house in order, if you reduce your debt, if you cut your expenditure, then you tighten things and you get your budget and fiscal arrangements in good order, ‘listen, nuh man, you gwine be frighten to see how investment and growth tek place’,” said Golding.

But Golding countered that it had been his experience “and the experience of so many countries that I have looked at, which tells me that’s not how it goes”.

He contended that there were countries which could “take off” on the strength of such policies. However, those were blessed with abundant natural resources which allowed them to adjust and adapt.

He cited Ecuador and Colombia in South America as countries with oil and natural gas which made it easier to recover and grow after economic stress.

In the case of Colombia, said Golding, the Government was able to minimise use of natural gas reserves because of abundant rivers providing hydroelectricity to cover most of their energy needs.

Jamaica, on the other hand, was a vulnerable, “open” and “exposed” economy.

“We can’t lock our doors and batten down,” said Golding.

He questioned what he said was a continued low investment climate, despite what were said to be favourable economic indicators which had been commended by the private sector.

“There was a time when the private sector used to say the reason you not seeing investments is because interest rates too high. Interest rates are now down. They used to complain that inflation is too high … out of line with main trading partners… Inflation is down. They use to complain about the high cost of energy (but) oil prices down, some say it may go below US$30 a barrel, (yet) investments are not taking place,” said Golding.

He suggested that the Government should take proactive action to find out what is holding back investors given the favourable indicators.

The Government should set about the task by pulling “together all of its technical agencies”, possibly led by the Planning Institute of Jamaica, the private sector leadership and the multilaterals to do “a serious analysis based on hard data”, Golding said.

He claimed that there “is a lot of investment capital around. Jamaican businesses have acquired a huge

amount of profits over a period of time… some have those profits invested in government paper… some I am told have actually moved it abroad, and wherever it has gone it is probably sitting down on some sort of investment where it’s earning no more than three-quarter or one per cent, and yet nothing so far has been able to induce them to come and invest it in Jamaica. Without that investment we won’t make it.”

He pointed to the downturn in economic activity in town centres and across rural Jamaica as evidence of the effect that the “squeeze” has had, leaving “no money out there to spend”.

The squeeze on the national budget had also brought political representatives under extreme pressure –none more so than MPs for the ruling party — and had forced drastic cutbacks in government services.

A way would have to be found “within the framework of the (economic) programme, but with the clear understanding that the multilaterals are going to have to recognise that the programme is not going to be able to achieve its objectives unless it is calibrated… in such a way that we not only accommodate but can in fact stimulate investment,” said Golding.

IT took only eight days for a Gofundme account set up by Sasha Palmer, founder and CEO of fruit popsicle company Liqy Liqy, to raise the money Baby Marley needs to get a medical test abroad.

That test will let Marley’s parents know what type of epidermolysis bullosa (EB) the 18-month-old is afflicted with.

The test will help to inform the treatment they get for the baby whose story, published in the Sunday Observer on August 23, 2015, melted readers’ hearts, generating 593 Facebook shares and 33 online comments.

Palmer was among the readers posting comments. But long before she clicked on the post icon, she had sent off an e-mail with an offer to Marley’s mom, Shauna-Gay Mitchell, at approximately 3:00 am after reading the story online.

The offer was to set up a crowdfunding account in order to raise the approximately US$1,600 Mitchell had told the Sunday Observer was needed for the test.

Epidermolysis bullosa is a very rare condition that causes the skin to be fragile. It affects one in 50,000 newborns and causes the formation of painful blisters, which can result in serious problems if they become infected.

To protect their skin from peeling, EB patients wear bandages.

Those bandages are costly, but Mitchell had told the Sunday Observer that, in an effort to keep the costs down, she has devised a system of washing and reusing the bandages.

While the illness, which has no cure, usually shows up in babies or at the early stages of a child’s life, some cases are known to have developed during adolescence or early adulthood.

Most cases of EB are hereditary. However, Mitchell said that as far as she is aware there’s no history of the illness in her family.

“When I saw Marley’s story it touched me. To see a baby in so much pain, bandages…” Palmer told the Sunday Observer.

Mitchell, who has two other children, admitted that she was awakened by Palmer’s

e-mail, but she really didn’t believe that a response to the story would have come that quickly. So, she returned to bed.

“By 6:00 am I was getting excited, and I said ‘okay, what’s going on? I need to respond to this e-mail’, but because we were going to the country, and I had to get everybody ready to leave by 7:00 [am] I wanted to sit and respond. I didn’t want to rush it,” Mitchell explained from her Kingston 5 home on the day Palmer visited and presented her with $296,000 — the money donated by 16 people, mostly in Canada, who read Marley’s story as it trended on the Gofundme top 10.

For those 16 donors, giving to a fund set up by Palmer was not an issue, because she had already earned a reputation for using crowdfunding to help people in need.

Among them are cancer patient Beverly Sobah; the family of Shakera Facey, the 19-year-old who had a huge tumour on her shoulder; and 14-year-old Leslie-Ann Gouldbourne, who has a brain tumour.

Palmer came to their aid after reading their stories in the Sunday Observer earlier this year.

“Over time, they have seen what I have done with the money they donated, so there is trust,” Palmer explained.

Palmer said that when she first approached Mitchell and Marley’s dad, Omarie Case, about using crowdfunding the couple was hesitant.

But Mitchell, who has a background in film-making, explained that her hesitation had its genesis in the fact that she had planned to do a documentary on Marley and, therefore, “didn’t want people to say, ‘oh, every time I see that name Baby Marley she begging money.”

Also, there was the matter of her pride.

“I didn’t realise how much pride I had until now, but I was happy that what I got from Sasha was that this was not about me, it was about Marley,” Mitchell told the Sunday Observer.

Palmer said that, while Mitchell and Case “didn’t come out seeking help”, she saw and felt their pain.

“You can’t blame them, but with the Gofundme, it’s just people who want to help,” Palmer said.

“Crowdfunding is a platform that we should not be afraid to use. I’ve seen the effects and the rewards,” said Palmer, who received the Business Journalists Choice award in this year’s Jamaica Observer Mogul in the Making, which promotes young entrepreneurs.

She explained that even though the person for whom the account is opened can see the donations as they come in, they cannot see who the donors are.

“A lot of people don’t contribute for publicity,” Palmer pointed out.

Mitchell revealed that when she saw the donations coming in, she was astounded. In fact, she cried on seeing a donation of just over US$1,000 from a group called Christ Followers.

“After I had finished crying and dried my tears, I went over to hubby and showed him,” she said.

“The people who donated, they have no idea what it means to me,” Mitchell said. “I knew what crowdfunding could do. I didn’t doubt that the money would be raised, but I didn’t think that it would happen so fast, and the denominations blew my mind.”

Now that they have the funds, the couple is making arrangements to take Marley to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, which has an epidermolysis bullosa centre described by the hospital as one of a few in the United States that provides comprehensive care for the unusual condition.

Meanwhile, other Jamaicans have contacted the couple with offers of help, mostly in the form of bandages for Marley.